I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for taking time to let us know.

If you don't mind, I'd like to use your terrible experience to educate everyone here. This is why mental illnesses are so terrible but rarely get the respect they deserve. Depression kills and the very drugs used to help it can be the vehicle for that death.

Effexor is a very potent anti-depressant and very depressed, people tend to take excessive amounts in hopes of relieving the depression....and it can lead to death. I'm sorry. Depression is a potentially lethal disorder and someone should have been monitoring her drug dosages more carefully. I fear way too many people don't understand just how lethal depression can be.

I have been hospitalized 28 times for being severely depressed and suicidal so I understand. I used to "play" with my dosages so I would feel better and it almost killed me too. I also know that now, insurance companies push to keep people out of the hospital when they really need it and kick them out in 3 weeks once they are in....whether they need to stay longer or not. I really feel for those who need care and can't get it and I bet your daughter-in-law needed that help and took it upon herself to try to help herself only to be killed by the very drug that tried to help her.

If taken at the prescribed levels and times, Effexor is a good drug but I can't tell you how many people I know personally who take more or take it more frequently as they try to push the depression away and it can be lethal. Even a weeks worth of the meds can stop breathing. I'm not saying she OD'd but I used to take my weeks worth all on the day I got it(Fridays)and then I'd sleep for 3+ days and wake up to see my therapist(Tuesdays) and then shake until my next script on Friday and then take the whole thing again. I was told how well this worked by other patients who did the same thing. This has been going on forever as I did this back in 1974.

Playing with psych doses is national problem....same for pain meds.

But we can't take excessive amounts of Orencia(I'm on it too). We take what is given to us....although I guess we could if we self-inject. But Orencia doesn't slow breathing, no matter how high the dose. Effexor does slow breathing responses.

With a drug like Orencia, I bet you get a yearly chest x-ray They say it's for TB(which it is) but it also checks for lung cancer with us. I just went through a series of CT's since a CT for something else found 2 small vascular growths in my left lung. But after 18 months, they have not changed in size so they aren't cancer. But I will continue with my annual chest x-rays for TB(and lung cancer) A chest x-ray can detect lymphoma too(from other biologics)

When we take meds at the prescribed level we usually don't run into trouble but the problem comes when people decide they need more and exceed the dosages or number of times they take a drug in a day. That is why prescription drug deaths are now the #1 cause of death in those aged 18-40 and most are psych drugs or opiate pain drugs. I heard the other day that psych drugs have now surpassed opiates in drug deaths.

It is incredibly sad. But death is not a side effect of Effexor but it is for Orencia and all the biologics. But death is a very real consequence for anyone with severe depression. Don't blame the drug, blame the depression. I know.....I'm still fighting it.

gentle hugs..............Jen

Jen, She had been doing great and we feel that she did not take more than was prescribed. The took the pill bottles with them and we know she did not OD. It was how her body reacted to it after being on it for so long is what caused the heart attack. I have other family members that deal with depression and it is a terrible disease. I am so sorry you have dealt with it for so long. Prayers for you right now. May God bless you immensely! Thanks for the gentle hugs. Right back atcha! Oh and thanks for the education. I don't get a yearly chest x-ray but I will ask.
Wendy

I am sorry for your loss. Especially when if it had been found early enough, it could possibly have been helped.

I think many of us have gone through circumstantial depression because of RA. I know I certainly did for about 2 long years. I was never hospitalized, but I should have been given some counseling. It wasn't till I got on a biologic, and had to fill out this huge questionnaire to qualify for the next 6 months of biologic that I found out how being chronically ill can affect the mind, and cause depression. That was because in this 20 page forum, about 1/3 of it was on mental health. I was so down I thought they would take me off the drugs if I answered how I really was feeling.

Of course, having no flares and getting a life back did alleviate a lot of the depression. Although I cannot lie, I have been sad the last year, realizing that not only was I in considerable pain, watched my left foot get more deformed, but also facing up to the fact that maybe this would be the rest of my life. (Although things may get better if Orencia finally works, or they finally test the new area of shutting off the gene to cure the disease. I am going to be first in the line up for clinical trials for that!)

I think what 51percent says is very important, even if it did not apply to the OP's DIL. People do play with psych meds. I know many people with mental illnesses, and all of them have done stuff like that at one time or another. Or had an interaction between drugs which the doctor didn't tell them about! (That happened to me in 2001 with psych meds interacting with NSAIDS I was taking - horrible time in my life.)

Playing with meds, or doing other things like drinking or street drugs is called "self medication." And while a lot of people who are not diagnosed end up doing this, these kinds of warnings are important know. My mom was on Effexor. She was very addicted, and felt it wasn't working. So she took a year to get off of it. I bet she would have gotten off earlier if she had known it could cause a heart attack.

I remember when you first posted with this news, Wendy. Wasn't it Thanksgiving week? Terrible that it took so long to get answers. How are your son and the kids doing?

Too bad she wasn't monitored for this. I often wonder, when hearing about the standard dose" of a med, if it is really adequate for my 6"2" 220-lb. husband, and if it isn't overkill for my 90-year -old, less-than 90 lb. friend. Between age, activity level, body mass, and metabolism, I wonder how often these things happen.

I'm so very sorry. As much as your family may have closure knowing why this happened it's beyond sad the very drug meant to help took her life. How scary that patients are so unaware.
My uncle takes Effexor 75mg I believe once a day.
He was on 3 meds total & his PCP took him off the others.
Never recieved therapy which I still feel he so badly needed just drugs. Thinking I should inquire about this med? He sees a cardio & has a pace maker now but still very scary.
How many other meds out there carry such high risks? Will we ever know?
Again I'm sorry.
Sending my prayers for peace for you & your loved ones.
Sammy

Alto and Sammy, thank you. It is scary not knowing about the meds and if the dosage is right for our body. My son and grandson are doing pretty good. He is trying to get a transfer to Florida where he will be closer to us and to his in-laws. Hoping to have him down here this summer. Have a great week-end!
Wendy

Interestingly, the day after I started Orencia, I noticed various lumps in various places on my body. I can't believe I stayed on that drug for three weeks. Those lumps eventually went away.